W.Va. DEP Hopes Water Monitors will Find Cause of Fish Kill
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
14 July 2010
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said it hopes
water monitors on Dunkard Creek will provide clues next week to what
caused a fish kill on a one-mile section of the North Fork of the West
Virginia Fork of the creek earlier this month.
Approximately 7,000 minnows and darters died in the Dunkard Creek
tributary near Wadestown, W.Va., on July 1, probably due to illegal
dumping of a harmful substance into the stream. Crayfish and freshwater
mussels in the area of the fish kill were unaffected.
"We do have continuous water monitors in the area and will get the
readings next week," Kathy Cosco, a West Virginia DEP spokeswoman, said
Tuesday. "Those may tell us what was put into the stream."
In September 2009, a bloom of toxic, non-native golden algae caused by
high concentrations of total dissolved solids discharged from mines in
the area killed almost all fish, mussels, crayfish and salamanders in a
43-mile long stretch of the stream that meanders into Greene County
along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia state line.
The two fish kill incidents do not appear to be related, Ms. Cosco said.